Finnish Civil War

The Finnish Civil War (27 January-15 May 1918) was fought between the socialist forces of "Red Finland" (led by the Social Democratic Party of Finland) and the conservative forces of "White Finland" (led by the non-socialist and highly conservative Senate) as a theater of World War I. The civil war broke out shortly after the Russian Revolution, with the former Grand Duchy of Finland entering the transition process of becoming a republic. After the SDP lost the 1917 elections, it proclaimed a revolution against the conservative government, and the 90,000-strong Finnish Red Guards (composed of industrial and agrarian workers) took over the cities and industrial centers of southern Finland. The peasants and the middle and upper classes formed the 90,000-strong Finnish White Guard to suppress this revolution and fight against the proletarian Red Guards. In February 1918, using weapons supplied to them by Soviet Russia, the Reds launched a general offensive against the Whites. The Red offensive was unsuccessful, and the White forces launched a counterattack in March 1918. In April 1918, the German Empire sent a 14,000-strong expeditionary force under Rudiger von der Goltz to assist in the fight against the Reds, and the Germans captured the Red-held Finnish capital of Helsinki and the city of Lahti, while the Whites defeated the Reds at Tampere and Vyborg. The Whites were responsible for political terror targeting the Reds, including several massacres, with the most notable one occurring shortly after the Finnish victory at Vyborg. On 5 May 1918, the last Red forces were forced to surrender to the Imperial German Army following a decisive defeat at Ahvenkoski, and the war ended ten days later. Finland became a German puppet state, and plans were in motion to transform Finland into a pro-German monarchy before the end of World War I in November 1918 forced the German interference in Finland to come to an end. 39,000 people died during the war, including 12,500 Red prisoners-of-war. Finland, now a democratic republic, would be politically polarized for decades, but the post-World War II economic boom would lead to the country pursuing more moderate politics and finally reuniting.